The Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar today said that two cluster Universities have been approved by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for Jammu & Kashmir.While replying to a question of Naresh Kumar Gupta, the Minister said the Universities will be established at Jammu and Srinagar. He said these universities are being created by pooling the resources of five existing colleges that have adequate academic, physical and technical infrastructure and would eventually become constituent colleges of the newly created University.The Minister informed the House that the University of Jammu has sanctioned various job oriented courses for introduction in its main campus as well as in its off-site campuses.He also said that Masters in Urdu and Masters in Chemistry courses have been sanctioned for introduction in the Bhaderwah campus of University of Jammu.
He said BCA, Science and Arts courses/streams were introduced in Government Degree College (GDC) Bhaderwah, Doda, Kishtwar, Kilhotran, Chattroo, Ramban, Banihal, Thatri, Gool and Marwah.The Minister said Rs 124.84 crore were provided to various campuses of the Jammu University during the last 10 years, adding that funds are released to the campuses in accordance with the approval of the University Grants Commission (UGC).He said various measures have been taken to streamline the education system in the State. He said supplementary shifts were started at Kashmir University to optimize the available resources and also to provide an alternative to the aspiring students.Dr. Shehnaz Ganai and Firdous Tak raised supplementaries to the main question.